The present disclosure relates to image forming apparatuses, and particularly, to a technology for suppressing a temperature rise in a developing device.
A general image forming apparatus has a drum type photoreceptor which serves as an image carrier, a charging section, an exposure section, a developing device, a transfer section, and a fixing section. Such the apparatus performs the following processes: a charging process in which the image carrier is charged; an exposure process in which an electrostatic latent image is formed on the image carrier by exposure; image forming process in which a toner image is formed by supplying toner to the electrostatic latent image; a transfer process in which the formed toner image is transferred onto a recording sheet; and a fixing process in which the toner image is fixed by a heat and a pressure.
To prevent the recording sheet from being wrinkled, the recording sheet needs to be properly conveyed to the fixing section along a conveyance path provided between the transfer section and the fixing section. For example, there have been technologies for preventing the recording sheet from being raised from the conveyance path by blowing air to the recording sheet being conveyed through the conveyance path: there, the air is blown in a degree in which a toner is not to scatter on the recording sheet.
When the image forming operation is carried out in succession, sometimes malfunctions occur: for example, as an internal temperature of the apparatus rises, toner (developer) is adhered. Thus, when the temperature of the developing device rises over a predetermined temperature, there is a case in which the image forming operation is stopped and a cooling mode is executed in order to lower the temperature of the developing device.